mussitation

Meanings

1. Speech conducted in a hushed manner, akin to a murmur or a whisper.
2. A comatose patient's action of forming words with their lips without producing sound.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mussitātiō (“soft noise made by dogs, or (Late Latin) people”) + English -ion (suffix denoting a condition or state). Mussitātiō is derived from mussitātus (“kept quiet; having been kept quiet; murmured, muttered; having been muttered”) (see further at mussitate) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs).